In the story “Follow the Water” by Jennifer L. Holm a girl named Georgie is dragged out to mars with her parents who are there to search for water. To live on mars you need to know a lot of information which can be found in the article “What Would it Take to Live Here” by Mackenzie Carro.…
James McBride was born in 1957 to an African-American father and a Polish Jewish immigrant mother. McBride's biological father, Andrew Dennis McBride, died of lung cancer while his mother, Ruth McBride, was pregnant with James. Therefore James regarded his stepfather, Hunter Jordan, as "Daddy." James's mother eventually had twelve children, eight from her first marriage and four from her second. James grew up in New York City and Delaware.…
Sarah Gruen’s Water for Elephants is an account of ninety-something year old Jacob Jankowski’s life, both in the present day, where he resides in a nursing home, unhappy with his living conditions and the old age that has robbed him of his freedom, and through flashbacks of when he was young, traveling with the circus. Just a few days away from getting his veterinary degree from Cornell University, Jacob’s mother and father were suddenly killed in an automobile accident, sending Jacob’s life spiraling out of control; with his parents’ debt having left him with no home and no money, he hops aboard a circus train for the “Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth,”…
What the Water’s Revealed, an essay by Jim Wallis, argues that the silent story of poverty in America was brought to light in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He also covers issues such as the war in Iraq and government spending that came under fire as a result of the storm. These were all issues that were slowly brewing prior to Katrina, but came to a head once people started looking for answers. Jim Wallis follows the classic principals of argumentation in his article. The subject covered in the article, is controversial and shocking for many Americans. He uses ethos, pathos, and logos to develop authority in the article and connect with readers.…
Have you ever felt so enthralled by a book that you literally wanted to crawl through the pages and enter into that world? The first in a five book series, Waterfall by Lisa T. Bergren is a great example. In this YA book, she vividly describes the emotions, characteristics, and personalities of the characters while bringing them to life. From knights in shining armor who are battling to the death to romantic love scenes, this book is definitely one to read on cold nights.…
In the novel "The Color of Water" by James McBride, the two characters Ruth and James grieve over the death of James's stepfather's death, Jordan Hunter, in completely different ways. Ruth's way of grieving for her husband was very different than how her son chose to grieve his departure. James said after the death of his stepfather's death he just started to misbehave and resulted in him skipping school a lot and going to the movies with his friends. "I virtually dropped out of high school... failing every class. I spent the year going to the movies ... with my friends" (pg 6). His siblings joked about the way he dealt with he grieved saying things like "James is going through his revolution"(pg 6). Skipping school was not the only thing…
In his speech This is Water David Foster Wallace during a commencement ceremony begins discussing the purpose of education, not only to become intellectually educated but to learn how to think. He introduces a metaphor of two fishes that after being asked how the water was, they wondered what water is, being water all the actual and commonly dismissed reality that surrounds us. Thus, it has led us to create a natural default setting that has caused individuals to become centralized in their individual/personal needs only, and that our needs are sometimes put over more relevant matters to fulfill our necessities first. He states that knowing how to think is to be capable to decide what things we pay attention to and what we learn from experience.…
Mcbride recognizes how the contrasting cultures and beliefs that come with each group of people creates resentment between different peoples. McBride asserts that people hate those who are different from themselves primarily through the racism he depicts in The Color of Water. For instance, when McBride depicts how his mother, Ruth, raises him and his eleven other siblings, he depicts how Ruth is constantly abused and ridiculed by the black community. McBride argues how the black community loathes his mother due to the actuality that she was a white woman raising James and his mixed siblings.…
The article “Into the Dark Water” by Lauren Tarshis, is about a boy named Jack Thayer, who was a passenger and a survivor of the Titanic. The author used these quotes because she wanted the reader to feel like they were with Jack and they could feel Jack’s emotions.…
“The Color of Water”, written by James McBride, is a memoir. The book was introduced to us in 1995. The main narrator, James, born in the year of 1957 to an African-American father and a Jewish mother. James, at that time, was not to keen about the black power in the sense he had a white mother. During the Civil Rights, his stepfather had passed away. From this point on; James realizes the true responsibility of himself towards his friends and family. He unveils his true self to the world with his memoir entitled “The Color of Water”. His mother’s name was Ruth McBride. Her story was also compelling. Ruth, born in Poland in the year of 1921. Ruth was an immigrant to the United States. Later in her life, she met her black husband Andrew Dennis…
Wallace, David Foster. "This is Water." Kenyon college commencement speech. May 21, 2005. Wallace's speech gives a look at reality. The way an American adult's life is. The way how everything is routine, how if not "well adjusted," you will be self centered and in default setting. He describes the daily routine of an American adult, and how he goes to a supermarket, packed with more people. He gets frustrated and annoyed by all of these people; how they are just wasting his time. He then starts thinking how all of these people are going through the same thing he is going through; they have rough days just as he does. If someone was to think outside the box and actually focus on the beauty of this world, they will not be bored, annoyed, frustrated,…
After reading the article “This is Water” by Wallace first of all I have to say that I enjoyed so much reading this article it had some great paragraphs that made you think and be like “Oh wow”. My overall thoughts about his article was that he was trying to convey on how most of the majority of adults life is on a every day to everyday basis with the majority have boring life and repetitive days making s angry and hate life because of the way we see life itself. He also talks about the way our brain sets up in the mode of its only about me and don’t see the lives of others and only worry about yours and makes it seem that only you are the one who is having problems and only you are the only one who matters in this world. But it’s not like…
In her book Vanada Shiva points out a growing concern many people do not pay attention do in their everyday lives. We take water for granted, and find hard to imagine a day when the tap runs dry. In Water Wars the author does an excellent job of analyzing the privatization, pollution, and profit of water in the International arena. She takes a scientific approach and explains the means and methods of water processing and extraction. In offering several tragic examples of where the water tables have already run dry in India, and the horrible loss of life which followed. Clearly, that which we take for granted in America is something of scarcity in other less fortunate countries. Either way, Shiva points out in her book the necessity of understanding…
In David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” he speaks about how most people are crafted with very similar thoughts in mind. According to Foster all people hold one same quality from birth. By looking at Wallace’s usage of “Default Setting”, we can see that their is ambiguous meaning but chiefly it is referred to as a quality that people are cursed with, which most readers don't see; this is important because Wallace speaks on the notion that people are selfish and don't consider how others feel, and those qualities are considered to be the “Default Setting.”…
In The Color of Water by James McBride, we are taught through the eyes of a black man and his white mother that color shouldn’t matter. Although Ruth McBride Jordan had grown up as a Jew and had a father who disliked Jews very much, she was never prejudice against them and learned that she fit into the black world better than the white world. When she married a black man, she accepted Christ into her life and told her children, “God is the color of water.” She taught her kids that color didn’t matter, because God loves all races.…